16 districts in K’taka face acute drought

BENGALURU: Even as parts of the state and neighbouring Kerala are reeling under floods, at least 16 districts in Karnataka have recorded deficient rainfall with the government mulling declaring them drought-hit.

According to data provided by the revenue department, four districts in south and 12 in north interior Karnataka received less rainfall during the south-west monsoon since June this year.

Director of the state Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre Dr GS Srinivasa Reddy said the situation was bad in ten out of 12 districts in the north interior region. “We had a meeting on Thursday where we discussed the issue of deficient rainfall in 16 districts. Barring seven districts in coastal and Malnad region, ten out of 12 districts in north interior Karnataka are facing severe deficient rainfall,” he said.

The process to declare the dis- tricts which received deficient rainfall as drought-hit was already in process and the government will take a call based on the recommendation of the revenue department by this month end, Reddy said.

State Emergency Operation Centre said districts of Raichur, Vijayapura, Yadgir and Gadag were the worst affected.

MASSIVE RESCUE OPS IN KODAGU

Indian Army soldiers and Navy divers joined the national and state disaster relief forces to rescue hundreds of people marooned in Karnataka’s flood-hit Kodagu district, said an official statement on Friday.

“About 60 Dogra Regiment soldiers and 12 expert naval divers rescued 873 marooned people in the flood-hit district, where overnight heavy rains caused landslides and inundated low-lying areas at Makkanduru,” said the statement from the chief minister’s office here.